


your voice has a way of changing everything

by thesoundofsirens



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Evan's got moves, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Jared doesn't wanna admit the tree obsession is cute, Jared's POV because he's fun to write, Kleinsen, M/M, Mutual Pining, Personality Swap, and Jared's just really gay, but come on, we all know it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoundofsirens/pseuds/thesoundofsirens
Summary: Jared's in denial and Evan's oblivious. It takes a couple impulsive risks and some miscommunication to finally get the two together.(Title comes from "Using the Internet for French" by Austin Weber.)
Relationships: Evan Hansen/Jared Kleinman
Comments: 10
Kudos: 77





	your voice has a way of changing everything

“Hansen, so help me, if you bring up the bath bomb incident one more fucking time I will throw this depressing dilapidated breadstick directly at your face.” Jared didn't intend to start his lunch break by verbally threatening his best friend, but things happen.

Evan grins at him from across the table. “Bringing up the bath bomb incident?” he asks with fake wide eyes. If he had any eyelashes to speak of, he’d be batting them. “Is that what I was doing?”

“You know exactly what you were doing,” Jared grumbles.

“What’s this I hear about a bath bomb incident?” Zoe asks brightly, walking up and depositing her bag next to Evan’s. “Do tell.”

Jared points a warning finger at Evan, whose face has cracked into a deceivingly innocent grin. Jared takes a moment to mentally note that his Slytherin side has been rubbing off on his friend, but he doesn’t stop to consider whether or not this is actually a good thing. “Don’t you dare.”

Evan pretends to pout, and it’s something that should really not come off as cute as it does, given that he’s six feet tall and a senior in high school, but for Hansen it just kind of works. He’s adorably innocent sometimes. Jared’s been noticing that lately. It’s frustrating, and not at all helping with the whole Totally In Denial About The Enormous Crush He Has On Evan Hansen thing that he’s had going recently. 

Like the tree thing, oh my god. Of all the things Hansen could have become an expert in, he’d picked trees. In Jared’s opinion, literally one of the lamest things on the planet. And so now every time Evan catches up to him on their way home from school, he has to do things like stop and wait while Evan goes to figure out the gender of the pine cone lying in the middle of the street, or help him determine the age of the maple in Jared’s backyard because Evan kept losing count of the rings, and sometimes Jared has to try really, really hard not to smile in a way that’s too genuine or not in any way heterosexual.

Which is another thing. Evan seriously does not get sex jokes, gay or straight. They just go way over his head, which is annoying seeing how at least half of Jared’s personality consists of sex jokes at this point. It’s like hanging out with a six year old sometimes. And Jared can’t explain them, because then it’s just awkward instead of funny and he’ll have to see the look in Evan’s eyes when he gets it and Jared’s really not sure if he could stand that.

And Evan’s got this one strand of hair that somehow got missed the last time he got it cut and when it gets windy, it flops into his eyes and drives Jared insane. And then he just goes and fucking flips it out of the way and acts like it’s not there and oh, my god. It’s a fair bit ridiculous. (And hot. It’s a little bit hot.)

So it’s completely the fault of Evan’s stupid, floppy hair when Jared tries to kiss him for the first time a couple days into spring break. They’re hanging out in his basement and the hair’s in his eyes, and Jared pushes it out of the way, to be considerate, of course (shut up), and then he’s just so close to his face anyway and wow, Evan’s eyes are a lot bigger up close, and yeah maybe that’s not the most heterosexual thing to notice but Jared’s already kind of stepped over a line by pushing the hair out of the way in the first place, and then he kinda just thinks _fuck it_ and kisses him.

“Um,” Evan says when Jared pulls away a second after he realized what he’d just done. (Was that his first kiss? Oh God, Jared just stole Evan’s mouth virginity. He’s a kiss thief.) And Evan can’t get any further than a couple “um”s without flushing and god, it’s such a Hansen thing to do that Jared kind of really wants to do it again.

What he does instead is normally Evan’s specialty: he panics. “Oh god,” he says. “Oh god. I’m sorry,” and he’s reaching for his phone and the doorknob and his keys. All he can think of is how he needs to leave before he does something stupid like insult Evan or propose marriage or maybe both at the same time because honestly, isn’t the idea that Jared is anywhere near Evan’s league just a tad bit insulting as it is?

“Jared, stop, we need to talk about this,” Evan says, but Jared’s already out the door. 

He spends the next few hours desperately trying to think of a way to redeem the situation, a joke he could text Evan to play it all off as not a big deal. But it is. It really is.

Jesus, he kissed Evan. Evan Hansen! Childhood friend, innocent dork, love of his life. (Scratch that last one.) Jared finally kissed him, and then he ran away. He wants a refund on his life.

Jared’s too embarrassed to really start to get worried until after a couple days go by and Evan still hasn’t tried to talk to him. It’s spring break, so they don’t see each other at school, but Jared knows for a fact that Evan doesn’t have any plans because he’d told him so right before Jared proceeded to invite himself over for dinner every night of the week. His decisions are entirely motivated by Evan’s mom’s meatballs, nothing else.

It’s not a big deal, them not talking. They were family friends, anyway, not even proper friends. And Jared just crossed a line. Does that count as harassment? He feels sick. Evan probably just wanted him to leave him alone. He’d figured that’d happen eventually. It’s fine. Jared has other things to do with his life. It was a mistake. It was that stupid, floppy piece of hair. It’s fine.

Jared never really figured he would _miss_ Evan this much, though.

It’s almost a full week before Jared’s phone lights up and he sees the name “Tree Boy” on the screen connected with the incoming call. It’s pathetic how quickly Jared answers it. He doesn’t even have time to pretend to be calm before Evan’s saying hi and the apology spills out before he even knows he’s saying it.

“Hi, um, listen, Evan, about last week, I’m sorry, I… I wasn’t thinking straight and I’m not very good at that which I guess you’ve figured out by now but anyway I know you’re straight because, like, Zoe, and anyway I shouldn’t have just… um, just… yeah. Sorry. And… I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier? So, we can just act like it didn’t happen if you want, I just-”

“Wait, you thought I was straight?” Evan asks, and it’s like- it’s like everything in Jared’s world jolts to a halt. Or explodes. Or something else violent and beautiful and completely unexpected. And Evan just starts laughing. “Jared, I thought _you_ were straight. I thought it was a dare or a joke or something.”

“Oh! Uh, no, I’m gay,” Jared blurts. “Very gay. Like, I watch RuPaul’s drag race religiously and my blood content is mostly iced coffee kind of gay. So gay, I don’t even know what a woman is, what even is a vag-”

“Jared?” Evan says. “You can shut up now.”

“Right.” Jared takes in a deep breath that sounds suspiciously relieved. “Right, come over.”

“Now?” Evan asks. 

“Yeah, now,” Jared says. “I think I’ve waited long enough and I want to do this in person, so come over. Um... please?”

“Okay,” Evan says, and in the background Jared can hear him explaining things to Zoe, whose response is basically “it’s about damn time.”

And suddenly Jared finds himself pacing back and forth in the entry hall, waiting. He’s not exactly sure what he’s going to do when Evan’s actually there, but he figures he deserves an explanation, at the very least. And if Evan… if Evan still wants him to leave, then fine. But at least he’ll know.

The waiting then is even worse than the week of waiting that came before it. Jared has time to doubt himself all over again, read into everything Evan did and didn’t say. He also has time to mentally slap himself for forgetting that bisexual people existed.

Jared hears the sound of Evan’s shitty blue car from outside and he’s opening the door before Evan can even reach the sidewalk. “Hi,” he says, leaning against the doorway in some last-ditch attempt to look insanely cool. Jared smiles and tilts his head and that’s it, that’s all he’s got. He could’ve sworn he had moves before.

“Hey,” Evan returns. “Are you gonna let me inside?”

“Shit, yeah, come in,” Jared says and moves out of the way. He perches on the end of the couch and waits for Evan to walk over.

“Are your parents home?” Evan asks as he takes a seat.

“Nah,” Jared says, raising an eyebrow. “Is that a pick-up line?”

“Depends,” Evan says. “Look at me, Jared.” Oh god. Jared’s gonna die staring into those deep brown eyes. Put it on his tombstone, cause of death: drowned in Evan’s eyes. What a way to fucking go.

“Jared,” Evan says for the second time, and the other boy snaps back to life. “The other day… why did you kiss me?”

And here’s Jared’s chance to make a joke, blow it off, back out while he still can, but something in him is stubbornly clinging to a shred of hope he didn’t know he had. Because Evan’s already said that he isn’t straight and he called him and he drove over here and there he is, leaning forward on a couch and staring into his eyes. _Fuck it,_ Jared thinks, the same way he always does moments before a self-inflicted disaster.

“Because I’ve been wanting to do that for months,” he admits. “Because I’m bad enough at admitting that we’re even friends and the thought of saying that, for me at least, you’ve been more than that for a long time was the only thing just as terrifying as keeping my mouth shut and watching you be happy with someone else.” He takes a breath. Keeps going, forces himself to say it. “But I’m selfish, Evan. I’m selfish and I didn’t think and I’m sorry, if that makes you uncomfortable, and I get it, I get it if you want me to pretend it never happened, or- or leave you alone entirely or-”

But then Evan’s cutting him off, a hand over his mouth that slides down to feel Jared’s jaw and then he’s kissing him, awkward and inexperienced and absolutely breathtaking. Jared gives it a second for his stomach to finish dropping to the floor and then he’s scrambling forward, pushing Evan back until his head meets the back of the couch and Jared has to brace his knee on the cushion and lean down to reach him. Eventually they come apart, breathing fast, and Jared can’t stop grinning like a goddamn idiot.

“I-” Evan starts, cutting himself off. “I was trying to think about what to say, on the way over? But all I could think about was how much I wanted to do this,” he says, and he’s kissing him again.

Holy shit. Jared must’ve fallen asleep and woke in the wrong timeline, because Evan’s got moves. But when they break again, even Jared can see that they really need to talk about this. He’s so confused.

“Evan, go on a date with me,” he says, trying to convince himself that he’s still got some control over the situation.

Evan laughs. “Is that a question or a threat?”

“Is that a yes or a deflection?” Jared counters.

“It’s a yes,” Evan says, and smacks his arm. Ouch. Jared’s starting to think that maybe he liked awkward straight Evan better, but then Evan hooks an arm around his neck and kisses him again and Jared thinks _nah. I could get used to this._

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for Evan's line "I was trying to think about what to say on the way over, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to do that" goes to the Kissing in the Rain series created by Yulin Kuang on YouTube (which I highly recommend, by the way!). It was just too perfect of a line for this not to use it.


End file.
